Attacker staked out Nice site, accomplice suspected

Update:
July, 18/2016 - 11:00

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Members of the public gather at a makeshift memorial on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice on Saturday, in tribute to the victims of the Bastille Day attack that left 84 dead. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the truck attack that killed 84 people in Nice on France’s national holiday. — AFP/VNA Photo

NICE, France – The Nice truck attacker staked outthe seafront for two days before striking, it emerged on Sunday as investigatorspieced together details of the Islamic State-claimed massacre and questionedpossible accomplices.

A source close to the investigation said that MohamedLahouaiej-Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian, sent a text message just before theattack in which he "expresses satisfaction at having obtained a 7.65-millimetrepistol and discusses the supply of other weapons."

He also took a selfie at the wheel of the 19-tonne truck in the days beforehe ploughed it into a crowd of people who had been enjoying a fireworks displayon Bastille Day, France’s national day, killing 84 and injuring about 300.

Mangled bodies were left strewn across the Riviera city’s seafront in thegrisly attack by a man described by those who knew him as a loner with ahistory of violence and depression.

While some relatives and friends described the delivery driver as someonewho drank heavily and never attended the local mosque, others questioned byinvestigators spoke of "a recent shift to radical Islam," said a police source.

But there has been no evidence yet linking him to the Islamic State group,which on Saturday claimed the attack.

An Albanian suspected of providing the driver with the pistol was arrestedin Nice on Sunday. Lahouaiej-Bouhlel fired at police who sprayed his rampagingtruck with gunfire, eventually killing him.

Two replica assault rifles and a dummy grenade were also found in thetruck, which he rented a few days earlier and used for reconnaissance on theseafront.

Besides the Albanian, six other people were being held over the carnage.

Lahouaiej-Bouhlel’s estranged wife, the mother of his three children, wasreleased Sunday after two days of questioning.

Slow identification of victims

In Nice, many people were still desperately waiting for news of their lovedones.

Prosecutors said just 52 victims had been officially identified so far asthey take painstaking measures to avoid errors of identification seen duringthe Paris attacks last November.

"We have no news, neither good nor bad," said Johanna, a Lithuanian who waslooking for her two friends, aged 20.

American student Nicolas Leslie, 20, who had been missing since the attackwas confirmed dead on Sunday, the third known US fatality.

At least 10 children were among the dead as well as tourists from Ukraine,Switzerland, Germany and about 10 people from Russia, a local Russianassociation said.

Religious services and gatherings in memory of the victims took place inseveral French cities on Sunday.

Health Minister Marisol Touraine said 85 people were still hospitalised, 18of them in critical condition.

’Radicalised very quickly’

Despite several brushes with the law for petty crime, Lahouaiej-Bouhlel hadnever appeared on the radar of intelligence services.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Saturday he "seemed to have beenradicalised very quickly, from what his friends and family" told police.

People who went to the same gym as Lahouaiej-Bouhlel – where he took salsadancing classes and lifted weights – described him as a vain man who "flirtedwith anything that moved."

The Islamic State group said one of its "soldiers" carried out the attackin response to its calls to target countries from the US-led coalition engagedin airstrikes against the group.

Cazeneuve described the massacre as a "a new kind of attack."

"We are now confronted with individuals open to IS’s message to engage inextremely violent actions without necessarily having been trained or having theweapons to carry out a mass (casualty) attack," he said.

Patriots called to volunteer

France’s third major attack in the past 18 months has left the governmentfending off criticism over security failures and scrambling to reassurecitizens about their safety.

The frustration of the French was writ large in some of the messages leftamong flowers and tributes on Nice’s seafront.

"Enough with the speeches" and "Sick of carnage in our streets," themessages read.

Cazeneuve called for volunteers to boost the security forces who werealready on high alert under an eight-month-old state of emergency.

"I want to call on all French patriots who wish to do so, to join thisoperational reserve," said Cazeneuve of a force currently made up of 12,000volunteers aged between 17 and 30.

The latest attack comes after a French parliamentary inquiry last weekcriticised numerous failings by the intelligence services following jihadistassaults in January and November last year.

France is a prime target of IS, due to its role in fighting the group inIraq and Syria, its emphasis on secular values, and what the government hasadmitted is a "social and ethnic apartheid" that alienates its large Muslimcommunity.

Hundreds of French jihadists have gone to fight alongside IS in Iraq andSyria.

French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian noted that IS had recentlyrepeated calls for supporters to "directly attack the French, Americans,wherever they are and by whatever means." – AFP